Monday, August 10, 2015

South
Access Route

With
your support it will happen

August 10, 2015

In
2011 when the Ueland Tree Farm (UTF) Mineral Resource Conditional Use Permit (CUP)
was approved, we heard from numerous members of the local community that they
would prefer that gravel truck traffic go out via Werner Road. Some people also
were concerned that the proposed processing facilities were not far away from the
Lebers Lane entrance to the tree farm.

Partly
in response to those comments, we spent a considerable amount of time and
resources investigating the practicality of creating a south access route to our
tree farm. The steep hillside, along with the Navy’s requirement to have a long
visibility corridor in both directions when crossing the railroad tracks, made
this a particularly challenging issue, one which had not been adequately
addressed in past studies (dating back more than two decades). Once we found a route
that met environmental and Navy requirements, we also needed to consider the feasibility
of acquiring legal access across parcels owned by six different parties,
including the Navy, the City of Bremerton, an existing quarry, and an
industrial site. After nearly three years of effort and investment, we made
sufficient progress by August 2014 to propose a CUP Modification to Kitsap County.

The
CUP Modification proposes to:

·Remove Gravel “B” from the project. Gravel “B” will not be
developed as we donated a conservation easement to The Mountaineers’
Foundation. UTF is requesting that parcels subject to the conservation easement,
and other parcels not directly related to the project, be removed from the
proposal.

·Allow us to shift transport
of rock and aggregate from Lebers Lane/Northlake Way to Werner Road. UTF anticipates maintaining
the Lebers Lane access route for employees, service and maintenance vehicles,
as well as our ongoing timber operations. UTF requests that if the mineral access
route changes to Werner Road the conditions in the CUP that apply to Lebers
Lane/Northlake Way related to using it for the mineral access route also be
removed from the CUP.

·Allow us to move the
aggregate processing facilities off-site. UTF requests that if the facilities are
moved off-site (for example, to the existing Kitsap Quarry) the conditions in
the CUP that apply to the processing facilities at Gravel “A” also be removed
from the CUP.

On
August 27th at 10:00am, we will present our proposed modification to the
approved Ueland Tree Farm Mineral Resource Development CUP to the Hearing
Examiner. We hope to receive community support as it is directly responsive to requests
from the community. If you agree these changes are positive developments, we
would greatly appreciate your attendance (and participation) at this hearing. This
hearing is not about the mining project itself (that already has been
approved), rather if UTF should be allowed to shift the mineral access route
and location of the processing facility.

As
always, if you have any questions please call Mark Mauren at (253) 307-5900
or read the material in the “CUP Modification” folder on the front page of our
website.